{"id":562974,"date":"2026-04-30T01:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/562974\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T01:21:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:21:29","slug":"analysis-no-response-from-winnipeg-jets-yet-to-hellebuyck-post-season-autopsy-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/562974\/","title":{"rendered":"ANALYSIS: No response from Winnipeg Jets \u2014 yet \u2014 to Hellebuyck post-season \u2018autopsy\u2019 – Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It will be a busy off-season for the Winnipeg Jets<\/a> as they look to improve on a disappointing 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

But there are a few areas for betterment that shouldn\u2019t take much planning.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly two weeks since Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> stood in front of the media and gave a passionate and candid review of his team\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

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Two very quiet weeks have followed.<\/p>\n

In what we\u2019ll call a cry for help directed at Jets management to improve the team this off-season, while the perceived winning window remains open for the majority of foundational pieces \u2013 Hellebuyck included \u2013 the three-time Vezina trophy winner wasn\u2019t shy in his 10-minute synopsis.<\/p>\n

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But what was curious about his take was that it didn\u2019t include absorbing a ton of accountability on his end. In fact, you could say culpability wasn\u2019t exactly part of his message.<\/p>\n

Now, the soon-to-be 33-year-old\u2019s verbal dissertation no doubt struck a nerve with Jets brass, but conversely, his sub-900 save percentage and .500 record this season might not put his words in the position to carry the weight he believes they do.<\/p>\n

Regardless, this entire situation brings us to a couple of thoughts surrounding both Hellebuyck and goaltending overall with the Jets \u2014 now and into the future.<\/p>\n

First off, nobody in the NHL<\/a> has made more goaltending appearances in the past 10 years than Hellebuyck \u2013 nearly 600, to be precise.<\/p>\n

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As such, perhaps it\u2019s time to seriously consider a reduction in usage, so as to always ensure the Jets are getting a fresh and rested number one goalie every night. Where that sweet spot lies is up for debate, but something around 60 games seems optimal.<\/p>\n

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And second \u2013 and maybe more importantly, based on this season \u2013 it\u2019s probably time that the Jets started thinking about Hellebuyck\u2019s heir apparent.<\/p>\n

For the better part of a decade, it\u2019s something the organization has never needed to consider, but after this season, life without Hellebuyck could be coming sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Two weeks have passed since Hellebuyck\u2019s cry for help, but in the quiet since then, it\u2019s become a little more clear that it should be a\u00a0rallying cry for everyone \u2013 including Hellebuyck \u2013 to just be better next season.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will be a busy off-season for the Winnipeg Jets as they look to improve on a disappointing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[1171,5,78,4,43,77,18,387,5288],"class_list":["post-562974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg-jets","tag-connor-hellebuyck","tag-hockey","tag-jets","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-jets","tag-winnipeg-sports","tag-winnipegjets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116491039206097359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}